Chat live at noon Friday about autism, vaccines & medical research

Dr. Julie Boom is a pediatric immunization specialist who directs the Immunization Project at Texas Children’s Hospital and works with the hospital’s Center for Vaccine Awareness & Research. Boom is also a Baylor College of Medicine professor whose research interests include improving Houston’s immunization coverage levels.

Katherine Loveland, Ph.D. is a neuropsychologist who has studied autism for three decades. She is a professor at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston. Her clinical and research interests include intellectual disability as well as the brain and behavior.

Leslie Phillips is a board member of the National Autism Association who lives in Katy. She has a 10-year-old son named Andrew who has autistic disorder. An MBA, she works part-time for Houston’s Family to Family Network, a nonprofit that helps families with children who have disabilities navigate the special education system in Texas. She’s also a board member of the Katy Autism Support and founded the Katy Faith and Disability Network, which helps faith communities include people with disabilities.

This conversation was prompted by the recent retraction of a Texas researcher’s 12-year-old article — work that ignited the debate about whether vaccinations cause autism. The 1998 paper in The Lancet medical journal and statements by its lead author, Dr. Andrew Wakefield, led to fewer vaccinations in Britain and a measles outbreak. (Read more in this MedBlog post.) At the time, Wakefield — trained as a gastroenterologist — was working in the United Kingdom. He now conducts research as executive director of the Thoughtful House Center for Children in Austin.

Vaccination supporters believe childhood diseases pose a far greater risk than inoculations while many autism advocacy group members remain concerned that the components, timing and other factors related to vaccines may play a role in autism development.